University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

Donna Victoria's Chamber.
Donna Victoria and Margaretta discovered.
VICTORIA.
Leave me, my Mar'gret, I'm unfit for converse;
Leave me to brood o'er the distressing thoughts
Which rack my bosom.

MARGARETTA.
Dearest lady! do not
Give way to useless grief.

VICTORIA.
Term it not so.
You heard what this mysterious stranger said.
Whose likeness could he find in the dear youth
On whom he gaz'd, but mine?

MARGARETTA.
Nay, that is sure.
From the first moment when I swaddled him,
And bore him privately from Lagos Castle
For fear his infant cries should reach your father,
I noted his resemblance to yourself.
He had your brow, the dimple on your cheek,
And, when he rais'd his eyes and smil'd upon me,
I could have sworn it was yourself in little.
But how can this poor stranger—

VICTORIA.
Who but one,
Upon whose mind the features of the mother
Had an indelible impression made,
Could in her offspring such resemblance find?
Oh lost Montalban! from my constant heart
Nor time nor absence can thine image blot!

MARGARETTA.
I grieve you thus should speak. Can you forget
How ill Montalban has deserv'd your love?

VICTORIA.
Alas! too well I know it; yet, in spite
Of all his falsehoods, still my heart is faithful:
By day I think of him, and, when at night
Sleep seals my eyes, I see him in my dreams,
As he was then, when first my yielding heart
Confess'd his pow'r, and own'd him as its lord.

MARGARETTA.
Nay, ma'am, that letter from his correspondent
The great Peruvian merchant, which Don Lopez
De Gongora, his factor here, once shew'd you,
Containing the detail of his new nuptials,
Is evidence enough of his deceit.
If farther still were wanting, you have that,
Which afterwards he wrote himself, denying
To Lopez that you was his wife, and daring,
Aye, daring you to th' proof of it.

VICTORIA.
Too well
He knew I could bring none. Our only witness,
The holy priest who join'd our hands, was dead,
Ere to Peru his haughty father sent him
To break those ties his pride disdain'd to sanction.
Cruel Montalban! was it not enough
To make me wretched? What had our child done,
Thus to be made an outcast, thus to lose
At once his name, inheritance and station?
The very thought is madness!

MARGARETTA.
In good truth
I hardly could believe it.—But those letters—
There's no resisting them—and yet it may be—
Are you quite certain, madam, of Don Lopez?

VICTORIA.
Why ask you that?

MARGARETTA.
I know not; but there's something
In his appearance, and his manners too,
May lead one to suspect he may have motives—

VICTORIA.
You know how much Montalban trusted him,
And, since he left his native land, maintain'd
Close correspondence with him.

MARGARETTA.
True, yet still
Doubts will arise—

VICTORIA.
What int'rest can he have
Thus to calumniate one, who, as he owns,
Has ever prov'd himself his firmest friend?
Let's think no more of him, but of some means
To clear away the gloom which thus involves me.
Perhaps this stranger—

MARGARETTA.
What do you hope from him?

VICTORIA.
Nothing—or ev'ry thing!—Could I but see him—
What if we visit him?

MARGARETTA.
Nay, I beseech you—
As yet, the myst'ry which attends your marriage
Is known to Lopez and myself alone.
Should you improvidently drop a hint
Which may create suspicion—Be advis'd.

VICTORIA.
Your caution's just. Perhaps the trial might
Prove more than I can bear. Do you, my friend,
Go and converse with him. You know the whole
Of my sad story.

MARGARETTA.
Marry, that I do.

VICTORIA.
Go then, and try to ascertain the truth.
Whatever the result may be, 'twill sooth
My heart to know it.

MARGARETTA.
Trust to me. I warrant
I'll bring you full intelligence.

VICTORIA.
Come then.

[Exeunt.